


Grounded

by Bullsy



Category: Star Fox - Fandom, Star Fox Series
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24221782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bullsy/pseuds/Bullsy
Summary: He was sitting in his cockpit with his hands on the controls and every intention of gunning it into nowhere.
Relationships: Falco Lombardi & Fox McCloud
Kudos: 2





	Grounded

He was sitting in his cockpit with his hands on the controls and every intention of gunning it into nowhere. It hadn't been the first time -- and he knew himself well enough to know it wouldn't be the last. But maybe he'd thought this was the day he'd never look back; maybe that was why Fox had come down now, and not any other time. Maybe that was why he sat on his wing, handed him a can of beer, and just stayed there without saying a word for so damn long.

But he couldn't make a single guess as to why he'd let it happen at all.

It might not have mattered.

"You know," Fox said at last. "When my dad -- "

Falco looked at him suddenly. "Don't -- "

"No, listen," Fox said tersely. "When I lost my dad, I lost my mind. I wanted to take this -- "

Fox gestured widely at the hangar around them.

"All of this -- and just fly it into Venom. Bring it all down and me along with it if I had to."

The silence was deafening. Falco wasn't sure what annoyed him more; his honesty, the taste of a cheap drink, or the way he seemed to be on the verge of choking on every word - he spoke so tightly, as if his throat might close on him any minute.

"But you know, right before, I had a drink with Peppy - like I'm doing with you, now," he said. "I told him straight: 'I'm going for Andross. I'm leaving and you can't stop me'. I said that right to his face. You know what he said to me?"

Falco could see it. He could see it so clearly because he'd seen it before - Peppy, with an arm around the back of Fox's lonely chair and trading low voices in a badly-lit room.

"He said 'so, when do we leave'?"

Something clicked together right then - something between Fox and an old memory of his own: a memory of sitting in a mildewed warehouse under the cover of night, shoulder-to-shoulder with a bunch of other flea-bitten kids with no one and nowhere else to go to.

"And then you had a team," Falco said suddenly. "Just like that."

"Just like that."

Fox's drink was gone; he was bending the empty can in his fist, and the way he stared into the bay doors, Falco knew he couldn't have realized he was doing it.

"It was different," he said. "Having Peppy and Slippy on. Now I needed more ships for the two of them, fuel for those ships, money for the fuel, jobs for the money. I couldn't even think about going to war."

Another pause.

"I don't think it fixed me, this team," he said. "But it held me up. It holds me up. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is . . . "

Fox hesitated. Falco forced himself to let him.

"I don't know. Maybe you should stick with it, too," Fox said. "Just for a bit longer. 'Cause going away - going alone - it can't be all it's cracked up to be, can it?"

Falco's knuckles tightened around his yoke. He could feel Fox looking at him, now. Looking for something. Anything.

"Okay," Fox said; finally, he was sliding off Falco's wing, straightening his jacket. "Okay. I'll . . . see you later. I guess."

Falco forced himself not to watch him walk away. He heard the door snap shut.

He clenched his jaw, scratching at the ignition on the dash.

He could still take off.


End file.
